Life After College
by sazcmc
Summary: A fic about life after college for the five main characters, Taylor and Chad are married and have some news, Sharpay has decided to get on track with her life, with a little musical number with her roommate Gabriella along the way! R&R please!


**The Fame**

Sometimes life never turns out just the way you might have imagined it when you were a starry eyed fifteen year old, imagining that by the time you were twenty-five all your dreams would have come true, you'd be married to Troy Bolton and the biggest star Broadway had ever seen by then. When I was fifteen I genuinely believed that by the time I was twenty-five I would have a penthouse apartment in New York City, and I would be starring in _Wicked_ or _Chicago_ or _West Side Story_ or something similar, one of the huge shows, one of the shows that always sold out.

I did not imagine that I would be sharing a flat with Gabriella Montez, my arch-rival from high school; we had ended up friends somehow. I wasn't all too sure how it had happened to be honest, something to do with a mutual love for showtunes, which we discovered via Facebook during our college days, and then we had just ended up friends. She and the aforementioned imagined future husband, Troy Bolton had split up and hew was also living in New York, sharing an apartment with my twin brother, Ryan.

The weirder part was we all lived in the same building, aside from Chad Danforth and his wife Taylor, they lived across the street from us. We all spent a lot of time together in this quaint little bar called _McGee's_, it was great the big red booths were big enough to just fit us. I loved it there, and it was just down the road really.

But no as you grow up you do find, that the world changes, you change. I was twenty-five years old, I was not married to Troy Bolton, I was single, and I was not a big star on Broadway, as of now the closest I had got to that was a bit part, a member of the chorus on _Mary Poppins _and it had taken long enough to get that. I let my fear of rejection stop me from going to auditions, I knew it was bad but it was terrifying. I currently had a day job anyway, I worked as a secretary – turns out you couldn't do much with a degree in Drama. Gabriella was still at college, NYU now she was in her last year or second last and then she would be a lawyer.

But life was good, I enjoyed life very much at the moment, sure it wasn't how I expected it to turn out but it was good, I had changed, tried to make myself much more bearable for other people to be around but well, it was a work in progress. I did still tend to find the 'old' Sharpay coming out at times but that couldn't be helped, I could only change _so_ much.

Although little did I know quite how much our perfect lives were going to change, just then. We had all met up for an after work drink at _McGee's_ at the time. "I'm just saying that it's so obvious. I've seen the way he looks at you." Chad said and rolled his eyes, he had his arm around his wives shoulders, loosely draped there.

Taylor laughed, "I don't know what you're talking about! So what if a guy looks at me, girls look at you the whole time." She rolled her eyes.

Chad groaned "Yeah but it's different, he is your boss. Girls that look at me are strangers." He said smugly and Taylor looked at him dubiously before Gabriella clearly decided to change the topic.

"Um… so is everyone looking forward to Halloween?" She asked and I couldn't help but laugh and raise my brow, Halloween was months away. Gabriella as if she had read my mind raised her arms in defeat as though she had said the first thing that came to her mind.

Troy was oblivious to this as he took a drink of his beer and smiled "I am! Already got my outfit in the mail, I'm gonna go as Superman." He said and I shook my head a little, he was really into the whole dressing up thing, I tended not to think about Halloween until about a week before hand, run out and find a fabulous costume and well, I usually ended up looking the best out of everyone – I thought anyway but others may disagree.

Taylor and Chad in the meantime seemed to have solved their dispute and were smiling smugly to themselves, "We have some news." Chad said with a grin and squeezed Taylor's hands, I glanced at Taylor to see from her eyes if it was anything I might already know, but I could see this was going to be new information from the little glint there.

"Oh?" My twin Ryan asked and several furtive glances were sent in their direction, myself included as we all mused over what it could be. My mind went into overdrive, were they moving house? Had Chad finally been picked up by a basketball team? Was one of them quitting their jobs?

"I'm pregnant." Taylor said and it was like a bomb had been dropped on the table. Gabriella I knew hated children, I was quite excited for them actually.

"Oh wow! Congratulations!" I said and reached over to hug them, well of course I was happy for them, and from the smiles on their faces this was clearly what they wanted.

Gabriella smiled too, although it looked rather false as she hugged Taylor and Chad too "Yeah congratulations, I'm so happy for you guys."

"Me too! I can't wait to be an uncle." Ryan said with a grin and I raised my brow for the second time.

"Technically since you aren't a blood relation you won't be an uncle." I informed him and he rolled his eyes, his way of saying that I ruined everything, "If I were having a baby you would be though, but that won't happen for a long, long time…" I said and laughed a little, definitely not. I needed to be a star first and well that was taking it's time.

So after many hugs and celebratory drinks later I went back up to my apartment with Gabriella and was sitting in the living room flicking through the TV channels and thinking about my life. Now that Taylor and Chad were going to be welcoming a whole new life into the world I couldn't help but think about my own, what had I accomplished in the last few years since graduating? Nothing. A bit part on _Mary Poppins_ for a few months and that was pretty much it. It was time to put all my fears behind me and start working towards being a famous star wasn't it?

After all wasn't what I wanted, the fame? "_I can't help myself I'm addicted to a life of material"_ I sang and stood up, Gabriella glanced over at me, as we had been sitting in silence; no doubt she had been pondering her own life. "_It's some kind of joke; I'm obsessively opposed to the typical. All we care about is runway models, Cadillacs and liquor bottles."_ I sang and danced through the living room.

"We do?" Gabriella said incredulously, surprised by my sudden outburst into song, I didn't really know why I was doing it, it was like high school all over again! But it was pretty enjoyable.

"_Give me something I wanna be, retro glamour, Hollywood yes we live for the fame, fame doing it for the fame, fame. Cause we wanna live the life of the rich and famous. Fame, fame, doing it for the fame, fame, cause we got a taste for champagne and endless fortune"_ As I sang this I went through to the kitchen and poured us both glasses of white wine, it wasn't champagne but it would do. I went through to my room and put on a feather boa and sunglasses, to pretend to be famous and made my way back into the sitting room where Gabriella could hardly contain herself.

"_Fame, fame baby, the fame, fame. We live for the fame, fame baby, the fame, fame. Isn't it a shame, shame baby a shame, shame? In it for the fame, fame, baby the fame, fame." _During this we did a dance in complete synchrony, as though we had rehearsed it before. It was so fun, and quite creepy that we managed it. I turned to Gabriella and said _"I can see myself in the movies with my picture in city lights. Photograph my mind and whatever else you'd like to shoot you decide."_ And I took a long drink on my wine before we both got up onto the table.

"_All we care about is pornographic, girls on film and body plastic. Give me something I wanna see, television and hot blondes in acquisition." _I said and waved my finger at Gabriella who joined in the singing as we sang the chorus again and did a synchronised dance.

I jumped off the table _"Don't ask me how or why, but I'm gonna make it happen this time."_ I danced through to the kitchen and Gabriella followed, it was like there was music in the background as well. _"My teenage dream tonight, yeah I'm gonna make it happen this time… fame."_ We paused and moved in time to the imaginary music _"Fame, doing it for the fame, cause we wanna live the lives of the rich and famous."_ We sang and did a dance in the kitchen.

By the time we had finished the song my glass of wine was empty and I looked at Gabriella, "I'm going to do it, I'm going to start going to auditions all over the city again and I'm going to do it." I said and she nodded.

"Let me guess, Taylor and Chad's news brought this on didn't it." She said with a giggle, she was flushed from the dancing, and the song which neither of us seemed to want to mention now, so we acted like it was normal.

I nodded, "Yeah I just started thinking about my life and I realised, I've done hardly anything since we got to New York, I've not accomplished anything." I said and rolled my eyes "I wanna try and get my life on track, sort of a plan of action." I said and Gabriella laughed.

"Yeah I was thinking about my life too, god I did not think it took this long to become a lawyer, hopefully in a couple of years…" She said and crossed her fingers; we put our wine glasses in the kitchen sink and the bottle back in the fridge, which was definitely enough for one night. We headed through to the sitting room for more life pondering.

"I will make it happen, I will get there." I said and nodded firmly, even if I was just saying it to myself as Gabriella began to fall asleep on the couch. I would, I would have to.

* * *

**Okay so this is the first fanfiction I have even posted in a really, really long time! I hope you liked it, I wanted to do a kind of High School Musical 'series' kind of thing, with songs galore and this chapter, well I had to use _The Fame_ didn't I? The moment I heard it I knew this one was gonna be Sharpays. Anyway so let me know what you think! Please review, add to your favourites and alerts, check out my other stories, I like feedback! I need it in order to make this better!**

**I want to make it more than just a crap oneshot, I do intend for this to be a series!**

**Sarah xoxo**


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